国产探花

Jessica Lewis Satrape 鈥�97 remembers the first childbirth she witnessed. The mother labored hard, breathing into her contractions for hours. A nurse listened to the baby鈥檚 heartbeat every 15 minutes or so. Meanwhile, the midwife simply sat in a rocking chair and rocked. 鈥淚 remember just being amazed,鈥� says Satrape. 鈥淚 thought, really, you鈥檙e just sitting there rocking? Shouldn鈥檛 this be a big deal?鈥�

And, of course, it was a big deal. 鈥淪he pushed, and the baby came out, and it was just a beautiful, messy, hard, miraculous thing,鈥� Satrape remembers. 鈥淚 was sobbing, the parents were sobbing; it was just overwhelming and amazing.鈥�

Fast-forward a dozen-plus years, and Satrape is that seasoned midwife, calmly standing by through labor but ready to jump in when the time comes.

Keene State didn鈥檛 have a major or a minor in women鈥檚 studies when she was a student, but Satrape took all of the women鈥檚 studies classes that were offered and majored in political science. She was a winner of the College鈥檚 prestigious Outstanding Women of New Hampshire Awards. Midway through her senior year, she hadn鈥檛 decided on a career path 鈥� until she was struck by an epiphany on Christmas day. 鈥淚 thought, I鈥檓 supposed to be a midwife,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t was a really overwhelming moment.鈥�

She talked with the nurse-midwife at her Vermont family practitioner鈥檚 office, then headed to Norwich University directly after graduation for an associate鈥檚 degree in nursing 鈥� which led her to a nursing job in labor and delivery and then to a midwifery nursing master鈥檚 program at the Medical University of South Carolina. A certified nurse-midwife, Satrape has worked for the last 10 years at Women鈥檚 Health Care, a group practice in Haverhill, Massachusetts. She delivers babies at Anna Jacques Hospital in neighboring Newburyport, Massachusetts.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not an easy lifestyle,鈥� she says of midwifery. 鈥淎nd you really tend to have a very strong drive to want to care for women, to make positive change, but also see that more holistically.鈥�

She鈥檚 drawn to helping teenagers, and many of her patients are teens in the foster care system who live in area group homes. That鈥檚 rewarding, and also challenging, she notes: 鈥淭hese are girls and very young women who come from really difficult backgrounds that we can鈥檛 even imagine 鈥� and now they鈥檙e pregnant.鈥� With those patients, she provides pregnancy care and well-woman care, and also encourages them to connect with community resources and to continue their education.

Satrape tells stories that range from the funny (a teenage mother in labor letting out a loud stream of 鈥渃olorful language鈥� just as a group of pregnant women touring the birthing center walked by in the hallway) to the touching (a woman who brought her two eight-year-olds, one her daughter and the other her stepdaughter, to all her appointments and the birth itself, as a way to bind the family together).

There are also scary moments and sad moments, she says, as well as disappointments 鈥� such as when a woman needs a last-minute Caesarian section. Satrape assists with those, too, so she鈥檚 with her birthing mothers through the entire process, even when it takes an unexpected turn.

She understands complications, having gone through two high-risk pregnancies herself. Women need to feel empowered in their pregnancies, she says; they should learn as much as they can about the process and put together a plan for the birth. But they also need to remember that the goal is a healthy mother and a healthy baby 鈥� and that, in the end, 鈥渢his birth experience is one to experience and not to control.鈥� Satrape and her husband, Joshua Satrape, a senior solutions architect, now have two healthy kids 鈥� a four-year-old and a five-year-old.

It鈥檚 been a rewarding career, bringing babies into the world, and Satrape, after many years of experience, is still in awe of the miracle of it. She can even trace her work helping women back to those political science and women鈥檚 studies classes she took at Keene State. 鈥淚鈥檓 putting that interest into a practical use,鈥� she says.